School and Work

School and Work

Willis found a number of similarities between the attitudes and behaviour developed by the lads and those of the shop floor at work. Having a laugh was important in both situations as a means of dealing with monotony, boredom and authority. Willis argues for a correspondence between school and work. This is not produced by the school. The lads have produced the correspondence by their rejection of the school. Doing this they have prepared themselves for their place in the workforce. 20 years later a similar study was conducted in the West Midlands by Martin Mac an Ghaill (1994). Some of the working-class young men- the ‘macho lads’ were similar to Willis’s lads. They rejected the authority of the teachers and the values of the school. However this was the time of high employment when many traditional low-skill working class jobs were disappearing. Because of this the macho lads’ behaviour was ‘outdated’.